What the F is FoOJ?

What the F is FoOJ?

You've seen the lime green base adorned with the seemingly nonsensical word front and center and riders like Christian Buliung and Keegan Valaika reinterpreting 90's new school gnar by buttering, reverting and bonking atop these atypical sticks. You may have even seen cryptic references to this underground initiative on social media. Well after more than a year of head scratching and conjecture Jake Olsen-Elm has chosen his own birthday to officially bring FoOJ into the world. SNOWBOARDER saw the edit and then spoke with Jake to ask the simple questions "What the F is FoOJ?" – Pat Bridges

So what the F is fooj? Do you remember when I was out in California two summers ago? I was visiting Signal and trying to learn more about Illustrator and more design stuff. With that I made this fake company FoOJ. With that I started doing all sorts of designs. Then late last summer Dave Lee, the owner of signal, called me and asked if I wanted to Launch a sister brand with Signal and that's how fooj started. So it's an art project that turned into a line of boards. A small line of boards.

So it's a passion project? For sure a passion project. I've always wanted to do something where I have complete control and see something from start to finish.

How'd you come up with the name FoOJ? I spent two weeks trying to figure out a name. I wanted it to be something that didn't exist. I wanted it to be 4 letters so I just kept messing around with 4 letters. "Wawa" was one name. Then I stumbled onto words with two "o's" in the middle which was cool because they looked like eyes. I then played with different letters outside the "o's" and I liked fFoOJ because the "f" and the "j" complimented each other.

What direction did you take with the board design's as far as how they'd ride? Well, that's the sick part. It's the same board as my Signal pro model structure wise. It's really wide with a blunted nose and tail. I used to ride a 151 but because this model is wider and stiffer with the blunted nose and tail I ride it in a 147. But it rides like a 153.

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And why choose Christian Buliung as the rider? He used to ride my boards a few years ago and I'd see him in Jon Starks videos. I hadn't met him before but I thought he had the sickest style and the sickest art. That's what I wanted with FoOJ. I wanted it to more or less be something to collaborate with people as an art project rather than a company. He was perfect. Keegan rode a FoOJ for a little bit and that was similar because he is into art as well.

Where can people get the FoOJ boards? All though Signalsnowboards.com.

So just direct or can people get a fooj with the subscription model? Both.

Anything else you want people to know about fooj? This isn't going to be a big company. This might just die and that is cool. I just wanted something to work on without anyone else telling me what to do.